Are Critical Hits disappointing? And some options

[Nifft]

I'd be a little cautious about granting a free standard action on a critical on a minion because of area affects and multiple attacks.

Yeah, agreed. I wouldn't ever hand out free actions.

Minions exist to waste PC actions. If the PCs figure out an efficient way to deal with them, great. If not, oh well. I don't give the PCs extra actions if they overkill a regular enemy by 40 hp.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Kzach]

If I was going to change something about 4e, it'd be minions and monster crits.

Minions I'd give two 'hit' states. First hit makes them bloodied, initiating any special abilities they have for bloodied (obviously you'd have to add these), second hit they're dead. And on a crit against a minion, it kills it outright. That makes both minions and crits against minions more interesting and more dangerous.

Second thing I'd do is give monsters, including minions, +1d6 crit damage for every five levels, starting at 1st. So +1d6 at 1st to 5th, +2d6 at 6th to 10th, +3d6 at 11th to 15th, +4d6 at 16th to 20th, +5d6 at 21st to 25th and +6d6 at 26th to 30th. That makes monster crits far more interesting and deadly.

Those two things I think would fix 90% of the 'problem' I have with 4e.

 

[Holy Bovine]

What is really boring are most monster crits, even epic level monsters doing a pathetic 15-20 amount of damage on a crit, whereas the PCs tend to do about 50+

I see no problem with playr crits.

OH well you could just...

Second thing I'd do is give monsters, including minions, +1d6 crit damage for every five levels, starting at 1st. So +1d6 at 1st to 5th, +2d6 at 6th to 10th, +3d6 at 11th to 15th, +4d6 at 16th to 20th, +5d6 at 21st to 25th and +6d6 at 26th to 30th. That makes monster crits far more interesting and deadly.

....err do this. Seriously I thought of this exact same thing as I read Dice4Hire's post. Even to the level division and how much damage to do. Creepy.

 

[Kzach]

...err do this. Seriously I thought of this exact same thing as I read Dice4Hire's post. Even to the level division and how much damage to do. Creepy.

We are of one mind.

Man, it's nasty in there

I've posted this particular house rule half a dozen times so perhaps you've seen it before and sub-consciously brought it up?

 

[Rothe_]

You have to remember that there are ways to boost your chances of scoring a critical hit, like the avenger class feature or the dagger master paragon path. If you boost the effects of the criticals, you are giving a huge boost to these options.
Also, if you include rules that add damage on top of the maxed out critical damage, you are making the game more lethal to characters - my guess is that monsters roll more attack rolls in total per encounter, even if many of them are for minions and such. If minions get higher crit damage, it can add up to make damage spikes possible that will kill PC's suddenly.

3.x edition was a bit different with crits and I think some people are missing that system. However, you have to remember that in that system you had to confirm criticals, which means that you had less chances vs. high defense opponents. Additionally, there were no attack rolls for most spells, which meant that area effects in particular did not have a chance to crit - in 4e area effect criticals happen and they add up too.

 

[Belphanior]

OH well you could just...

....err do this. Seriously I thought of this exact same thing as I read Dice4Hire's post. Even to the level division and how much damage to do. Creepy.

Not that creepy, the progression falls entirely within the structure of the 4e system. It's a logical extrapolation. And I do the same, except minions get a flat amount of +1/+2/+3/+4/+5/+6. I don't think minions really need a chance to suddenly deal that much more damage.

 

[Holy Bovine]

We are of one mind.

Man, it's nasty in there

I've posted this particular house rule half a dozen times so perhaps you've seen it before and sub-consciously brought it up?

Nah - I usually have you on ignore
j/k

 

[Infiniti2000]

As our campaign has gotten to 5th level and I've read deeper into the rules...
Thoughts?

Beware house rules when you've only just started playing the game!

 

[lukelightning]

If I was going to change something about 4e, it'd be minions and monster crits.

Minions I'd give two 'hit' states. First hit makes them bloodied, initiating any special abilities they have for bloodied....

Thus thwarting the design goal of minions, which is to create simple monsters that represent minor threats that can be easily dispatched without record-keeping.

 

[Belphanior]

Thus thwarting the design goal of minions, which is to create simple monsters that represent minor threats that can be easily dispatched without record-keeping.

When global design goals clash with personal end-user goals, why assume the former has supremacy over the latter?